by A. P. Jensen
***
Over the next five days, she drifted in and out of consciousness. Her body protested every movement and it was clear that inhabiting someone meant that whatever happened while she was in that person carried over to her own body. If Bones hadn’t been on guard duty, would she have died in her sleep with Delilah? Delilah’s last moments tortured Raven. Why had she done it? Why not save herself? She didn’t understand why Delilah threw that “screw you,” comment at Angel unless she believed Angel wouldn’t follow through with his promise. Either way, Delilah knew enough about Angel to know he would retaliate.
The mansion was under repair. She lay in bed listening to the sound of people stomping on the roof or the sound of pounding that echoed through the halls. Happy brought her bland meals and Doc visited three times a day under duress. Doc complained the whole time while Raven tried to insult him as much as possible. She didn’t have a gun or knife at her disposal since she was “emotionally unstable” according to Bones. She was frustratingly weak and despite the antibiotics, constantly nauseated.
She didn’t appreciate the company that filtered in and out of her room. Being men, they didn’t know how to talk to her about what happened so they talked about the intense training Big Daddy was putting all of the Unmemorables through. Big Daddy and Luester worked through Sunshine’s absence by beating the hell out of the other Unmemorables. Ace came to visit and set up a poker game on her bed. Even Gerald came to see her and when she reluctantly recounted the dream, he shocked the shit out of her.
“You aren’t up for negotiation,” Gerald said.
She stared at him, nonplussed. “What?”
“We aren’t giving Angel a person to bargain with. We’re hunting him down and taking him out.”
“But how can we do that if we don’t offer him something?”
“Angel will make a mistake. We just have to be patient.”
“He killed a little girl,” Raven whispered and as always, tears were close to the surface. Batman was curled up in her lap and she stroked him as she tried to get ahold of herself.
“We’re going to get the others back. Until you’re at full strength, I don’t want you trying to use your power.”
“Don’t know how it works anyway,” she mumbled.
An uncomfortable silence fell between them and she huddled into her blankets.
“Cain’s here,” Gerald said.
She glared at him. “And?”
Gerald narrowed his eyes. “You need him.”
“What?”
“You went through a traumatic thing. You need a shoulder to cry on or some shit.”
“I have Jackie and the boys.”
Gerald shook his head. “Not the same thing.”
It wasn’t and she lay in bed at night, wishing Cain was beside her.
“Jane’s not here,” Gerald continued and she gave him a blank look. “Cain didn’t want her to stay.”
“Why would he want his girlfriend to be under the same roof as a bunch of assassins?” she snapped.
Gerald slashed his hand through the air. “You’re impossible.”
“So are you!”
They glared at one another and Batman turned on his back and bat at her hand as she scratched him under the chin.
“What you did the night of the attack...”
She tensed.
“If you hadn’t given that initial warning, I’m not sure we’d have been able to counteract as quickly. As for your brand of Clarity, it made an impression on the boys. If you’re up to it, maybe you can help Big Daddy with training.” A muscle ticked on his jaw. “We’re used to hiding in the shadows. If the prophecy comes true, we need to be ready.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“If you manage to reverse the curse and we’re not unmemorable anymore...” Gerald scowled when her mouth dropped open. “On the other hand, if war’s coming, we need to be ready.”
“Angel claims he knows how to break the curse. He could be lying, but I don’t have a clue.” She considered her situation and muttered, “Not sure if I want to break the stupid curse anyway.”
“Cain didn’t choose to forget you,” Gerald said.
“Are you defending him?”
Gerald looked extremely uncomfortable. “I’m just saying.”
She rubbed a hand over her face and sighed. “Jackie has a big mouth.”
Gerald cleared his throat and got to his feet. “That woman in the basement is getting on my nerves. She wants to take showers and shit. Get rid of her.”
Belle. She’d completely forgotten about her. Gerald left and she sat on a chair in front of her window, looking out at the ruined golf course. Even as she let her mind drift, her stomach lurched. She shooed Batman to the floor and stumbled to the bathroom and was sick to her stomach. She wasn’t sure if this was an aftereffect of Delilah or something else.
“What’s wrong with you?” Bones asked, poking his head into the bathroom.
“How the hell should I know? I’m not a doctor,” she groaned as she got to her feet.
“Doc says you should be completely fine, but most of the time when I come in here, you’re puking your brains out or sleeping.”
“Doc also thinks I caused my heart to stop, that jackass.”
Bones watched her grab her toothbrush with shaking hands.
“I tried to find Delilah’s body. I couldn’t.”
“Maybe he did something with the body,” she whispered and felt sick again.
“Are you sure she died?”
“Angel put a bullet through her stomach at point blank range. I felt her life fading away...” She swallowed hard and pressed a hand against her roiling stomach.
“Okay,” Bones said.
“What’s up?” Jackie asked, joining Bones in the doorway.
“She just puked her brains out again.”
“I’ll get Doc. . . .”
“No!” she shouted and waved her hands. “I’m fine now. I need to talk to Belle.”
Bones and Jackie glanced at each other. “Why?”
“Because,” she snapped and pushed past them.
She hadn’t been out of her room since she came back from Utah and it felt odd walking through the halls. She passed two Unmemorables she didn’t know. She blinked when they nodded to her in acknowledgement.
“What’s that about?” she muttered.
“They saw you fight, they know how you gave the location for the cabin, and they heard about Delilah,” Jackie said.
“You have a big mouth,” she accused.
Jackie shrugged. “If we’re gonna survive this war, we need to be on the same page.”
“War?”
“What do you think we’re in the middle of? Angel attacked the Council and Unmemorables and he has hostages. We’re training, making allies . . . war’s here just like G-Ma foretold.”
Raven stepped into the elevator. Her heart was heavy as she pictured G-Ma. That sweet, crazy old lady didn’t deserve to be mistreated.
As the elevator sank, she was pleased to see that new front doors had been installed, the air smelled of fresh paint, and all traces of the attack were gone. Bam Bam, obviously coming from the gym, flexed his bulging muscles and posed for her. For the first time in what felt like months, she felt her mouth curve before the elevator passed the foyer and stopped in the black-carpeted hallway. Jackie and Bones flanked her as she approached the metal doors. She froze when the door on the right opened.
Cain stepped out of the room they used for interrogations. His normally expressive eyes were blank and cold. Cain paused when he saw them and looked at each of them in turn. His face was covered with blood and his knuckles were torn and swollen. A volatile mix of emotions rushed through Raven, but she acted on none of them.
“Find out anything new?” Bones asked.
“No,” Cain said.
“You’ve been working him three times a day for almost a week,” Jackie said and his tone was clearly disapproving. “
He’s already broken.”
“So?”
The cold question made Raven suck in a sharp breath. Cain walked away and they watched him go.
“What’s wrong with him?” she whispered.
“That’s the Cain Henson we know,” Bones said. “No emotion, no conscience. He does what he has to.”
“Until you,” Jackie interjected and clucked his tongue. “Actually, I think he’s worse than before. Even Pop told Cain to put the soldier out of his misery and he refuses.”
“How much can he remember?”
“Cain has Pop’s hair and he knows he’s living with a bunch of Unmemorables, so he doesn’t even try to remember our faces.”
“How have the Unmemorables been treating him?”
Jackie chuckled. “The stupid ones tried to jump him. Doc’s been pretty busy this week.”
She watched until Cain disappeared from sight and let out a long breath. “I really need to talk to Belle.”
Bones pressed the code into the keypad and opened the door. Raven motioned for them to stay outside and they didn’t argue. Belle wore an oversized shirt that stopped at her knees. She looked pretty good for someone who’d been shot and left in a jail cell. Her blonde hair was tidy and plaited and her skin was flawless. Belle was gorgeous and it struck Raven that no one in their right mind would think a woman that looked like this would be living in a swamp by herself. Raven walked in slowly and Belle’s dark eyes moved over her warily.
“What happened to you?” Belle asked, noting Raven’s milk pale face and limp.
Raven stopped a foot away from the bars of her cell. “I’m going to ask you a question and you’re going to answer it.”
“I am?” Belle tried to look innocent.
“Yes, you will,” Raven said calmly.
“Or else what?”
Raven walked back to the door and without an explanation, snatched two guns from Jackie’s holster. She slammed the door and walked back to Belle who took several steps back, eyes wide with alarm.
“Like I said, I’m going to ask you some questions and you’re going to answer unless you want to spend another week recovering from more gunshot wounds.” Raven waited for a smart-ass response, but none came. “Okay. Are you Olivie Belrose?”
Belle’s face twisted. “I told you, my name’s Belle Lincoln.”
Raven shook her head. “No, it isn’t. I’ve been on a mission to break the Unmemorable curse and I had the idea to track down a Belrose descendant. I was convinced that a descendant of Olivie Belrose could reverse the curse. We found a painting of Olivie Belrose and it’s ironic how much she looks like you.”
Raven cocked her hip and tried to hide the fact that her body was trembling with fatigue. She held Belle’s unreadable gaze.
“Gerald says I have to do something about you so unless you want to tell me why you look like Olivie Belrose, what a coincidence it is that your name is Belle or why my cousin calls you a villain, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”
Belle sighed dramatically. “I just want to be left alone.”
“Are you a descendant of Olivie Belrose?” Raven rapped out.
“How is that possible?” Belle asked sweetly.
Raven pulled back the hammer on the gun and Belle threw up her hands in exasperation.
“I didn’t mean to curse his whole family!”
Raven’s body hummed with anticipation. “You’re Olivie Belrose?”
“Haven’t been Olivie in a while,” Belle sniffed.
“What year were you born?” Raven asked with bated breath.
“Seventeen forty eight.”
Sunshine had been right all along.
“I don’t know why you’re going on about breaking the curse. I tried!” Belle said angrily.
“Why would you care if it was reversed?”
“The curse rebounded on me.”
It took Raven several seconds to process that and then, “You’re an Unmemorable, too?”
A curt nod and Belle began to pace in the small confines of her cell. “I searched for a cure for three hundred years before I gave up. If you think I can break the curse, you’re wrong. You can riddle me with bullets and I’d still live somehow. My life’s been hell ever since I cursed Francis.”
Raven leaned back against the walls because her legs began to quake. “Why’d you do it?”
Belle’s beautiful face became hard and bitter. “I’m sure you heard why.”
“Francis was your husband and he cheated on you.”
Belle nodded curtly and when she didn’t expound on that, Raven cleared her throat.
“And?”
Belle looked affronted. “Isn’t that enough? You’re a woman, you should know.”
Raven thought of Cain and Jane and swallowed hard. Yeah, that was enough. “Couldn’t you have just killed him instead of cursing his whole damn family?”
“Killing him was too easy. I wanted to teach him a lesson.”
Raven clapped once. “Congratulations. If these guys find out who you are, they’ll torture you to death.”
“All I wanted was a child!” Belle yelled. “Francis impregnated four maids, two women in court and was starting on the queen. He wouldn’t even touch me and I was his wife! I couldn’t take it anymore. You must understand!”
Raven examined Belle’s devastated face. Even after centuries, the pain was written all over her face. Woman to woman, Raven understood now, but it didn’t make it right the fact that generations suffered because of her.
“You have no idea how to reverse the Unmemorable curse?” Raven asked.
“No, I’ve tried everything.”
Raven leaned her head back. She was back to square one and Angel held all the answers.
“Just so you know, if I can’t reverse the curse, there’s no way anyone else can,” Belle said.
“There’s a prophecy,” Raven said wearily, “about a female who can break the curse, jumpstart a war, and possibly change this world as we know it.”
There was a long silence and then, “And they think you’re that female?”
She opened her eyes. “I know I am. Aside from you, I’m the only female Unmemorable ever and a Seer confirmed it.”
Belle’s face brightened and she clapped her hands together. “What can I do to help?”
Raven’s brows rose. “You want to help?”
“Yes. I didn’t inherit Unmemorable powers when the curse backfired. I’m forgettable without all the secret assassin perks. As you saw, fighting doesn’t come naturally to me. You’d think after all this time, I’d be better.” Belle juggled her shoulder. “By the way, you’re a mean shot.”
“You should see me with knives.”
Belle shuddered. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“Do you know about Angel?” Raven asked curiously.
“I know about everyone,” Belle admitted. “The Battalion, Council and the Unmemorables. I keep tabs on what’s going on, but I keep to myself. I’ve become accustomed to being on my own. It’s depressing to make friends who can’t remember you and die. I’ve had enough of that.”
Raven felt a spear of sympathy and shook herself.
“Thanks for telling me the truth,” Raven said and turned toward the door. “We’ll figure this out.”
“Let me go,” Belle pleaded.
Raven turned and looked at her. Who would have thought that the witch who’d cursed them centuries ago was at their mercy? Belle looked fragile and otherworldly in her beauty. What would the guys do if they found out who she really was?
“No one will touch you, but I don’t think I can let you go. Not yet.”
Raven walked out of the room, closed the door and leaned back against it. She rubbed a hand over her damp face and took a deep, shuddering breath.
“Raven?”
She opened her eyes and found Bones and Jackie in front of her. “I need someone to go to the store for me.”
They glanced at one another and nodded.
; “What do you need?” Bones asked.
“A pregnancy test,” she whispered a moment before she fainted.
Chapter Twenty
Raven stacked her feet on the coffee table and stared at the Christmas tree in Cain’s house. She was alone, but she knew the Unmemorables hadn’t left as she asked. They were probably parked in someone’s driveway, staking her out. She had a screaming fight with Gerald that nearly ended in knives when he found out she was trying to leave the mansion. He relented in the end, but it was clear that he wasn’t letting her take off on her own. She had a two-car escort and she gave them credit for not knocking on the door every half hour.
Raven walked through the house, which had been untouched since Christmas. The New Year passed when she was in a coma. She’d never been the resolution type, but felt that maybe this year she might make a list of to-dos. She went up to the master bedroom and ran her hands over the outfits Cain had bought her and leaned against the shirts that smelled of him. She made a pot of coffee, plugged in the Christmas tree and just stared at it while her mind wandered.
She’d been stalled in a stupefied state and she was finally ready, kind of. She picked up her phone to text Jackie and sipped coffee. It had been two days since she fainted outside of the dungeon. Bones, Ace, Harvard and Bam Bam tore out of the mansion as if their asses were on fire and bought twenty different pregnancy tests and two Big Gulps. The suspicion that she might be pregnant hit Raven like a ton of bricks when Belle talked about Francis. Raven was constantly nauseated, and of course Doc wouldn’t know what the fuck was wrong with her because he didn’t know anything about women.
While Raven took the pregnancy tests, her group of Unmemorables gossiped like a bunch of old women. Jackie pounded on the door impatiently while she was trying to pee and she threatened to knife him if he didn’t leave her be. She didn’t say a thing until she got a result from every pregnancy test and by that time, more Unmemorables were crowded in her bedroom, including Gerald who wanted to know what the buzz was about on the Unmemorable frequency.